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Columnists: Pat Townsend & Joan Gebhardt

Photo: Pat Townsend

  

Photo: Joan Gebhardt

    
         

The Hogan Center

Pat Townsend & Joan Gebhardt
ptownsend@qualitydigest.com

 

 

“Benchmarking” entered the American quality lexicon after Xerox won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1990 and revealed that it had been a major factor in their improvement activities. As with any really good idea (Six Sigma, for example), it was immediately pounced on and practiced by all manner of folks, with the word being stretched to fit a wide range of activities.

At heart, though, the idea remains: Find someone who is doing a particularly good job of something that applies to your organization and see if you can figure out what they’re doing that you can adopt or adapt. Baldrige winners are, quite naturally, the subject of many benchmarking efforts, formal and informal.

With that basic definition and the Baldrige connection in mind, this column is focused on one interesting organization--the Hogan Center for Performance Excellence, located in Dallas. The reason they are of interest is their track record with regards to both the Baldrige and the Texas Award for Performance Excellence, a Baldrige clone.

Founded as the Hogan Quality Consortium in 1987 (the organization’s current name and structure was adopted in 1992), its members have the following achievements:

Texas Award for Performance Excellence:
1996--Texas Nameplate
1997--John Deere, Dallas
1998--TD Industries
1999--Branch-Smith Printing Division
1999—KARLEE Co. Inc.
2002--Bill J. Priest Institute for Economic Development
2003--Park Place Lexus

In addition to three site visit recipients, these organizations are Baldrige winners:
1991--Marlow Industries Inc.
1998--Texas Nameplate Co. Inc.
2000—KARLEE Co. Inc.
2002--Branch-Smith Printing Division

So, who are these people? And what do they do?

The original catalyst for the establishment of the Hogan Center was the desire to provide a central communication and information framework for member organizations to improve their knowledge of total quality management. That effort evolved into a two-year training program that Warren Hogan, chairman of the Hogan Center, named the “Process for Transformation.” It is the model that continues--with customized changes--to be used today.

Although it does offer an array of courses taught either by its staff or by recommended consultants/trainers in the area, the greatest strength of the Hogan Center may be the interplay among its members. Both in the context of monthly meetings and during meetings completely outside of the activities of the Hogan Center, past winners mentor award aspirants, and organizations in general are available to each other. Benchmarking within the Hogan Center members is encouraged and common.

The Hogan Center credits it success to “Six C’s”:

Community: There is a palpable feeling of community at the Hogan Center events. At a recent dinner to honor Baldrige recipient Branch-Smith, the atmosphere before dinner was one of a group of friends who had gotten together for the evening. After dinner, the pride and affection felt for the new winner by the CEOs of the other three Baldrige winners was quite obvious.

Center: The word “Center” was chosen deliberately. The organization works at being the hub of idea-exchanging among the members.

Catalyst: Through its meetings, classes and follow-up communication with members after classes, the leadership of the Hogan Center ensures the organization is a catalyst for questions, suggestions and growth.

Competencies: Besides the competencies brought to the discussion by quality award winners, the Hogan Center consciously augments its own skills by bringing in outside sources either for its meetings or for classes.

Culture: The Hogan Center recognizes that an organization’s culture ensures that the changes made today are welcomed and made a part of how things operate tomorrow. As a result, they counsel member companies to pay attention to both the rational and the emotional components of leadership.

Colleagues: The Hogan Center is in many ways a gathering of colleagues. A willingness to share information is simply expected of members--and there is virtually no way that an organization could join the Hogan Center without knowing that in advance.

As it says in its brochure, “Special emphasis is placed on ensuring a strong link between training, coaching and networking to enable [a company] to complete a successful transformation.”

There are, of course, hundreds of organizations throughout the country that provide consultants, training classes, and/or the opportunity to meet and learn from others, but when one distinguishes itself by having members win seven state quality awards and four Baldrige Awards, the question that begs for an answer is: What are they doing that works so well?

JoAnn Brumit, CEO of KARLEE (2000 Baldrige winner) says: “The strength of the Hogan Center benefits all organizations in their pursuit of excellence. Their track record of taking beginners to high-performance is the result of their expertise from assessing, planning and implementing all areas of the Criteria for Performance Excellence.”

About the authors

Pat Townsend and Joan Gebhardt have written more than 200 articles and six books, including Commit to Quality (John Wiley & Sons, 1986); Quality in Action: 93 Lessons in Leadership, Participation, and Measurement (John Wiley & Sons, 1992); Five-Star Leadership: The Art and Strategy of Creating Leaders at Every Level (John Wiley & Sons, 1997); Recognition, Gratitude & Celebration (Crisp Publications, 1997); How Organizations Learn: Investigate, Identify, Institutionalize (Crisp Publications, 1999); and Quality Is Everybody's Business (CRC Press, 1999). Pat Townsend has recently re-entered the corporate world and is now dealing with “leadership.com” issues as a practitioner as well as an observer, writer and speaker. He is now chief quality officer for UICI, a diverse financial services corporation headquartered in the Dallas area. Letters to the editor regarding this column can be sent to letters@qualitydigest.com.